RUE DE QUINCAMPOIX
Paris 1718
Page
25
Nothing can be more diverting then to see the Hurry and Clutter of the Stock-Jobbers
in Quincampoix Street; a Place so scandalously dirty,
as if it had been not the Sink of the City only, but of the whole Kingdom.
In this narrow situation all this great Affair is Managed,
the inconveniency of the darkest and nastiest street in
Paris does not prevent the Crowds of People of all Qualities,nay
not of Ladies, coming to buy and sell their Stocks in the open Place; where,
without Distinction, they go up to their Ankles in dirt, every step they take.
Daniel Defoe reporting as a
journalist in Paris. “Stock-Jobbing in Paris,” Mist’s Journal, Nov 28, 1719.
JOHN LAW
Scottish born Controller General of France
Page 35
And then the
end came.
From 1719 to 1720 many prices doubled. All the while, the market price of the company’s stock fell.
After a temporary closure of the
Banque Royale to halt a run on its gold specie reserves, a dozen people were crushed to death during a riot that broke out at the locked gates of the bank.
The angry mob, hoisting their
fallen in the air, marched to John Law’s office of the controller-general. Law had fled in advance of the crowd, and enraged by his escape,
the
mob destroyed his private carriage.
Page
37
Like John
Law, Cuming was a radical economic thinker who himself yearned for the opportunity to apply his understanding of the workings of banks,
credit, and paper money as means to his desired financial goal.
Page
37
A Gentleman Arrives
It was December 5, 1729, and
the news quickly spread through the shops, churches, and streets of Charles Town
in the English Royal Colony of South Carolina, that a new gentleman had arrived by ship that day from England.
His name was Sir Alexander Cuming, the second Baronet of Culter, and no doubt more than one maiden perked up to
the gossip that Sir Alexander—barrister, military man, respected mathematician, and advisor to the Crown
—was
both heir to a great Scottish estate and apparently unmarried.
Word soon spread that although Sir Alexander had initially come to America
to perform a study of the Carolinas’ natural resources for the London-based Royal Society,
after much soul searching, he had now decided
to stay and do
great things for his newly adopted home of Charles Town...
Page 44
Sir Alexander then recounted to the newsmen the startling yet
true story of how, on the night of April 3, 1730, he had entered the meeting lodge in the great Cherokee village of Nequassee
where all the important leaders of the nation had gathered to meet the unusual; "English" man... had strode to the
center of the room and falling to one knee demanded that all join him in a pledge of loyalty to King George II of England...all
the chiefs, warriors, and spirit men fell to their knees and repeated the oath to the faraway English monarch. The next day
the Cherokees crowned Sir Alexander as their king.
THE SEVEN
CHEROKEE
London - 1730
Page 48
Of Treaty and Friendship
For the British,
the seven Indian visitors represented a unique opportunity to obtain a formal treaty with the Cherokee people. Such
a treaty in hand would block the French attempts to break the English monopoly on the lucrative Cherokee deerskin trade,
and strengthen the British claim on the lands of the Carolinas. A territorial claim long contested by the Spanish to
the south in Florida and now by the French edging their way east from the Mississippi Valley.
The Board of Trade had attempted to obtain a treaty on September 9,
but when the Cherokee realized that Sir Alexander had been excluded from the ceremony, they politely but firmly made
note of his absence and the ceremony was halted.
FLEET STREET PRISON
London
Page
49
A Debt to Pay
The years following 1730 and his great American adventure were harsh for Sir Alexander.
His ill-gotten gains from America were depleted. The creditors he had left behind when he sailed to America were waiting
to pounce upon his return. As his funds diminished, Cuming dabbled in one wild failed scheme after another, and even
pursued alchemy--trying to turn base metals into gold and silver - as a cure for his financial woes. Although the scandal
of Charles Town was revealed in 1730, it was not until 1737 that Sir Alexander's financial ruin overtook him and he was placed
in London's Fleet Street debtor's prison where he would languish for twenty-nine years..
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